Myanmar needs $300b to catch up

More than $300 billion needs to be pumped into Myanmar’s economy if the country wants to catch up with its infrastructure, housing, power supply, telecommunications to 21st-century standards, US economists say.

In a report for US think tank Project Syndicate, economists Martin N. Baily and Richard Dobbs said that current investment into the country is far too low to reach that goal.

Baily is a former chairman of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisers and an economic policy development commentator at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Dobbs is a director of the McKinsey Global Institute.

While the latest investment figures showed that investment in Myanmar stood at $1.4 billion in the last financial year, the economists say that at least $20 billion are needed each year up to 2030 to move the country away from its current agrarian base and make it a modern nation.

In a first step, more than $50 billion will be invested in a mobile phone infrastructure in Myanmar after two licenses have been awarded on June 27. Aside from that, one of the biggest looming investments is expected to be in the energy sector, with 30 offshore blocks up for development, and others are hotel developments to cater for the expected rise in tourism.

Also, housing developments are desperately needed. Only an estimated 13 per cent of Myanmar’s population lives in large cities, but that could rise to 25 per cent by 2030, which is an addition of 10 million people, the economists say.

More than $300 billion needs to be pumped into Myanmar’s economy if the country wants to catch up with its infrastructure, housing, power supply, telecommunications to 21st-century standards, US economists say.

In a report for US think tank Project Syndicate, economists Martin N. Baily and Richard Dobbs said that current investment into the country is far too low to reach that goal.

Baily is a former chairman of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisers and an economic policy development commentator at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Dobbs is a director of the McKinsey Global Institute.

While the latest investment figures showed that investment in Myanmar stood at $1.4 billion in the last financial year, the economists say that at least $20 billion are needed each year up to 2030 to move the country away from its current agrarian base and make it a modern nation.

In a first step, more than $50 billion will be invested in a mobile phone infrastructure in Myanmar after two licenses have been awarded on June 27. Aside from that, one of the biggest looming investments is expected to be in the energy sector, with 30 offshore blocks up for development, and others are hotel developments to cater for the expected rise in tourism.

Also, housing developments are desperately needed. Only an estimated 13 per cent of Myanmar’s population lives in large cities, but that could rise to 25 per cent by 2030, which is an addition of 10 million people, the economists say.